BILES’S SOVEREIGNTY seems almost inevitable now, as an old-world sport long dominated by bouncing pixies has evolved to reward innovation. But none of it was inevitable. When she was born—in 1997 in Columbus, Ohio—her biological mother was struggling with drugs. Her biological father was out of the picture. Biles was three when child-protective services placed her and her three siblings in foster care. Their foster parents, Miss Doris and Mr. Leo, had a beagle named Teddy and a trampoline that Biles was not allowed to jump on. Instead, she would play on a swing set in the backyard. Imitating her older brother, Tevin, Biles would swing high and then dismount midair by doing a backflip.
Eventually, the four kids—Biles, Tevin, her older sister, Ashley, and her younger sister, Adria—went to stay with their maternal grandfather, Ron, a retired Air Force sergeant who worked as an air-traffic controller, and his second wife, Nellie, a regional nurse who had emigrated from Belize. (When Biles was born, it was Ron who had suggested the name Simone, she writes in her 2016 memoir, Courage to Soar: “He’d liked the sound of it ever since he was a teenager listening to Nina Simone records in the housing projects in Cleveland.”) Ron and Nellie lived in Spring, a suburb north of Houston. They had two sons of their own—Ron II, who was 16, and Adam, 14. They also had a trampoline, and this time, Biles was allowed to jump on it.
Biles and Adria formed an attachment to Nellie. In her memoir, Biles affectionately recalls how, on her first day in Spring, Nellie wedged Biles between her knees and redid her hair, washing and combing and brushing and braiding: “I loved the feel of my grandma’s hands in my hair. I loved the look of concentration on her face as she worked.” After a failed reunion with their mother and another stint with Miss Doris and Mr. Leo, Simone and Adria were officially adopted by Ron and Nellie in 2003. (Tevin and Ashley were adopted by Ron’s sister, Aunt Harriet, in Cleveland.) Grandma and Grandpa became Mom and Dad.
A media consensus seems to have formed that 2018 was the year Biles “found her voice,” but Courage to Soar suggests she always had one. Self–assertion is a prevailing theme throughout. Biles describes her three-year-old self as “just plain stubborn” and a “bossy little thing” who lorded it over her younger sister.
Biles was also remarkably physical. During the girls’ first stay in Spring, Nellie would often enter their room in the morning to find Biles sleeping in Adria’s crib. Nellie assumed Ashley was letting down the side of the crib at night, until one day she walked in and saw Biles hoisting herself up, one leg slung over the rail. Later, Biles made it a habit to roll out of bed in the morning, grab her overalls, and head straight to the trampoline. Ron II and Adam would double-bounce Biles to see how many times she could flip before she landed. Another favorite game was to see how many pull-ups she could do on their outstretched arms. When Biles was six, Nellie enrolled her in classes at a local gym. She spent only a few days in recreational before she was transferred to team.